There was also a major change in ridership, as three-time Tour de France champion Alberto Contador departed for Saxo Bank–SunGard, while his doping case remains unresolved.

Three Spanish domestiques followed Contador to Saxo Bank–SunGard, while two climbing talents who spent the previous season with Liquigas–Doimo, Roman Kreuziger and Robert Kišerlovski, were notable additions to the team for 2011.

They had a much lesser presence at the Grand Tours than they did when Contador rode for them, achieving just one stage win and sixth overall as their best placing, both from the Giro d'Italia.

[19] Kišerlovski and Clarke took seventh places at two early-season classics, respectively the Classica Sarda and the Giro del Friuli, the latter a race run in such difficult conditions that only 25 riders finished.

[24] Clarke provided two of the team's highest finishes in the later-season single day races, coming fifth at the Coppa Ugo Agostoni and seventh at Vattenfall Cyclassics.

[27] The team also sent squads to the Clásica de San Sebastián, the GP Ouest-France, the Grand Prix Cycliste de Montréal, the Coppa Sabatini, the Giro dell'Emilia, the GP Bruno Beghelli, the Giro di Lombardia, the Chrono des Nations, and the Japan Cup, but finished no higher than 17th in any of these races.

In stage 2 at the Presidential Cycling Tour of Turkey, Valentin took his first win of the season in a field sprint, besting Alessandro Petacchi at the finish.

The victory made the younger Iglinsky the race leader for a day before he ceded it to Colnago–CSF Inox's Manuel Belletti, winner of stage 3.

He, Mikaël Cherel, and Tony Martin had slipped off the front of the field when the day's principal breakaway was caught, and stayed away to allow a three-up sprint decide the winner, though they had no appreciable time gap over the fast-charging peloton at the finish.

Cherel protested the results, feeling that Vinokourov's sprint had illegally impeded him, but race officials upheld the order of finish on the road.

An MRI taken after the Romandie prologue, due to the Croatian suffering from severe shoulder pain, revealed that he had a cracked vertebra.

[48] After Masciarelli won the youth award at the inaugural Giro di Padania,[49] Valentin Iglinsky provided for the team's final wins of 2011 at the Tour of Hainan.

[56] Kreuziger, like the rest of the field, was greatly outclassed by Alberto Contador on Mount Etna in stage 9, but despite finishing 50 seconds back he vaulted even higher in the standings, entering the top ten overall for the first time, at seventh.

[58][59] With Michele Scarponi's Lampre–ISD leading a strong chase, Kreuziger finished sixth on the day, amongst the race's top riders, to remain seventh overall.

Tiralongo, perhaps Kreuziger's top support rider, attacked out of the leading group 7 km (4.3 mi), all uphill, from the finish in Macugnaga.

[65] Contador, who had ridden the last three seasons with Astana, remembered Tiralongo as a friend and a valued support rider, and wanted to do something to thank him for all his hard work done on the Spaniard's behalf.

But since José Rujano, the man who had been directly ahead of him in the overall standings, is a vastly inferior time trialist (46th on the day), Kreuziger moved past him to finish the Giro in sixth place overall.

While he did fall short of his goal to finish on the podium, Kreuziger nonetheless added another Grand Tour top ten and the best young rider jersey to his palmarès.

Entering 2011, he had thought it to be his final season as an active competitor, and his main goal for the year was to wear the yellow jersey at some time during the Tour.

[72] In stage 8 on Super Besse, Vinokourov and Team Sky's Juan Antonio Flecha put in an attack that constituted a clear bid to take the yellow jersey.

Starting the day 32 seconds back of race leader Thor Hushovd, Vinokourov surged past Flecha and all remaining members of the morning breakaway other than eventual stage winner Rui Costa.

He occupied second position on the road, holding a sufficient time gap that he could take the race leadership, until he was reabsorbed by the depleted front peloton and finished at the back of that group.

Vinokourov's injuries were quite clearly serious immediately – he could not walk back to the road from which he fell, needing to be held up by Di Gregorio and Grivko.

He had surgery in Aurillac the next day, with the scheduled recovery time for the injury ruling him out for the remainder of the season, also meaning that it would likely end his professional career.

[77] Later this plan changed, to have him ride the Chrono des Nations instead, due to the lesser risk of crashing in an individual time trial than in a hilly classic.

The squad's best-placed rider in the final overall standings was Di Gregorio in 39th place, an hour and 22 minutes off Tour winner Cadel Evans' time.

[82] Kashechkin, who previously rode for Astana before being suspended following a positive doping test at the 2007 Tour de France,[83] transferred to the team from Lampre–ISD effective at the beginning of August.

[85] Kiserlovski commented after the ride that the team was well pleased with fourth place and the small time gap to the stage winners Leopard Trek.

[86] Gasparotto had high placings in stages 2 and 3, but did not come especially close to winning either, taking seventh in a field sprint and then ninth over a minute down on the back-to-back days.

Sporting director Aydar Mahmet expressed the team's dissatisfaction with Kashechkin publicly suggesting the expectation of a high placing when he obviously did not have the form to attain it.